Santorum camp boasts Romney attacks

His campaign didn't respond at first in a Washington Postblog Monday morning about Romney shifting his attacks from Newt Gingrich to Santorum in recent days, but a few hours later addressed it in a press statement.

"If Governor Romney were confident running on his record and his vision for the future, he would," said Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley. "But Gov. Romney does what he always does and directs his well-funded attack machine to destroy the opponent. Mitt Romney's act is tired, old and wearing thin with voters and I suspect at this point, with the media too. Romney never touts his own record - because it's abysmal. In the Republican Party we have a name for someone who supports government healthcare mandates, big bank bailouts, and radical cap and trade initiatives - we call them Democrats"

Ahead of Tuesday's elections in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, Santorum is polling well against Romney. As of last week, Santorum was running way ahead in Missouri, slightly ahead in Minnesota and while trailing Romney in Colorado, was beating Gingrich.

It's exactly where Santorum hoped to be: the last conservative standing to make Romney's path to the Republican nomination a long and windy one. And it appears that Romney is trying to cut him off at the knees.

From Phil Rucker at the Washington Post:

The Romney campaign scheduled a conference call with reporters featuring former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty discussing Santorum’s “long history of earmarks and pork-barrel spending.” The campaign also distributed a research dossier to reporters with “a summary of his past discredited attacks against Governor Romney” over the Massachusetts health care law.

The Romney team has not unleashed these kinds of attacks on Santorum since the days following his narrow win in the Iowa caucuses last month. The assault is not as broad as the one on Gingrich in Florida, however; as of Monday, the Romney campaign is not airing any paid negative advertisements about Santorum.

Romney advisers consider Minnesota, where public polling has been inconsistent and is considered unreliable, to be up for grabs. And they see Santorum as the strongest threat in the state, where Republican primary voters are expected to be overwhelmingly conservative.

In Minnesota on Monday, Santorum was asked how he likes being at the center of the attacks. According to Politico, he replied, "I love it!"